What's your idea of an India A team based on this season's performances? Nadeem and Rassool as spinners (Rassool also as a middle-order batsman), a pace/swing attack of Ishwar Pandey, Rishi Dhawan, Varun Aaron and Siddharth Kaul/Sandeep Sharma. Batting should include Ishank Jaggi, Kedar Jadhav and Unmukt Chand, and maybe both Uday Kaul and Gautam can play as wicketkeepers.

Assuming we are talking FC here, Don't think Sandeep Sharma is ready from what i've seen. Aaron as i said above is a crock.

Batting options would be Jiwanjot Singh, Unmukt Chand, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Bist, Rohit Sharma along with Maybe Jaggi competing with others and 1/2 dropping from the first team. Would like to select Mukund as a opener too if we can ignore the season's performances.

One spinner is a Cert in Rasool who can bat as a lower middle order batsman too. Other one is tougher though and would be between Nadeem/Ladda probably.

Rishi Dhawan is a interesting prospect as a seam bowling all rounder but his bowling isn't great right now in terms of being a strike bowler and his batting is again a lower order bat.

I would pick Dhawan and Vijay as main openers in the A team and Mukund as the backup opener. Our next series is in SA so its best that they both play in this A tour so that they get used to the SA conditions

Batting options would be Jiwanjot Singh, Unmukt Chand, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Bist, Rohit Sharma along with Maybe Jaggi competing with others and 1/2 dropping from the first team. Would like to select Mukund as a opener too if we can ignore the season's performances.

One spinner is a Cert in Rasool who can bat as a lower middle order batsman too. Other one is tougher though and would be between Nadeem/Ladda probably.

Rishi Dhawan is a interesting prospect as a seam bowling all rounder but his bowling isn't great right now in terms of being a strike bowler and his batting is again a lower order bat.

Keeper would be Gautam or Saha.. Uday Kaul in contention.

Originally Posted by nsniks

I would pick Dhawan and Vijay as main openers in the A team and Mukund as the backup opener. Our next series is in SA so its best that they both play in this A tour so that they get used to the SA conditions

Ideally, I'd prefer they don't play the more experienced blokes such as Dhawan, Badri, Mishra, Pankaj and Vinay in the India A team, and instead, fill that team with fresh, young players, who can go on tour to learn. The more experienced players can play for Board President's XI, facing touring sides. They can, however, play a few experienced players in the A team to guide the younger players along each tour. Dhawan and Rahane would be the right choice here, to open the innings.

Aaron may come in on the back of a good season, for want of options with express pace. Nobody else will cut down on pace, and we even hear Umesh Yadav thinking of cutting down on pace. Pankaj Singh has increased his pace, but it's not over 140K. Unfortunately, none of them are match-fit, and this shows how poor BCCI's injury-management and performance-management system really is.

Rassool is a certainty as a spinner, especially because he's also a very productive batsman, and five bowlers can be played alongside him. He's been the best all-rounder in this Ranji season. The other will easily be Shahbaz Nadeem for FC and Iqbal Abdulla for LA.

Rishi Dhawan will make it easily, again, for want of options- as a strike seamer who can also score runs. Surely a better contender than Ashish Reddy.

Jiwanjyot, Jaggi, Kedar, Rohit Sharma, Mukund (his current post-Ranji form is a lot better), and Rayudu as a senior guide for the rest of the team, will be a good list to choose from. They're never short of options for batting, or wicketkeeping (Gautam, Saha, Uday Kaul), but strike-bowler all-rounders and also fast bowlers (not seam/swing bowlers) are hard to catch, and A-team tours should focus on developing players for these roles. And also get their best spinners productive overseas.

"Talent is nothing without opportunity"
"You're not remembered for aiming at the target, but hitting it"

Once again, here's my question. Would you pick someone like Varun Aaron, who's decently fast, but struggles to take wickets or even stay fit, or Pankaj Singh/Ishwar Pandey, getting loads of wickets, but not outright quick and likely to struggle on anything flat enough for a batsman to thrive in? Ideally, I'd pick Pankaj/Pandey and get that bowler to bowl fast enough to be competitive across different conditions.

Whom would you choose? Ideally, I'd have both (hang on, our national selectors still think the likes of Dinda and Mithun are national prospects) in the same side. I wouldn't mind choosing Aaron, if, at the very least, the whole bowling unit takes 20 wickets cheaply. But he's not even able to stand up straight.

So I'm left with the option of choosing Pankaj or Pandey and getting the bowlers to increase their pace (maybe even make it mandatory to make a place for them in the national side), but it would again start turning the Indian Pace Revolving Door, which should actually be welded shut. So I'd have Pankaj or Pandey, and enlist the right kind of experts (pace bowling consultant, fitness trainer, biomechanist, to name a few- but not the Charles Krebs kind of expert) to help clean or enhance this bowler's action for sustainable extra pace.

I wouldn't quite settle with one choice- but Aaron's long lay-offs force me to settle with the wicket-taking slower bowler, and a task to find a way to make this bowler faster. What's your choice?

Vinay Kumar is one bloke who chips away plenty of wickets in domestic cricket. He's actually got the best figures amongst all the prospects. His lack of pace, however, rendered him a weaker bowler at the international level, and he even struggles in the IPL when he's facing top international batsmen. That's the issue. A more extreme case is that of Gagandeep or Ranadeb, domestic bosses who get smashed out of the ground in IPL and lose their places after two games. That's why the question comes up.

An attack of Umesh, Pankaj and Bhuvan (neat nickname, if you're a Bollywood fan) is a good combination, with Pandey in reserve. However, these prospects that fans name (Pandey being the best, Sid Kaul, Shami, Rishi) are very new and raw, and need a few more seasons of experience before being national prospects. Two blokes (Unadkat, Mithun) were introduced way too early and ended up being...at the very best...not up to the mark for the India uniform. Those still young should play for India A until five seasons are done.

In the end, I think it's so utterly, incomprehensibly boring. There is so much context behind each innings of cricket that dissecting statistics into these small samples is just worthless. No-one has ever been faced with the same situation in which they come out to bat as someone else. Ever.

Shrikant Wagh has unbelievably good limited-overs statistics in his career so far. Likewise Shami Ahmed, but Shami has a lot more going for him. Siddarth Kaul doesn't have wickets by the high-fives, but chips away plenty each innings, hits the deck hard and bowls a good bouncer. Mohit Sharma is another newcomer, and will need to perform for four more seasons before being thought of as a prospect. Duncan has identified young bowlers barely a season old.

The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy has had a revamp- the knockouts were replaced by a 'super league', where the top teams face each other, and the top ten teams are divided in two groups, and the top two make the finals. Very good move, but I would prefer they take this into the Ranji Trophy sooner than later, and the option of fitting it into the Hazare Trophy should also be explored. I would also prefer the top teams across the country making the super league, not just the zonal top two.

Delhi vs Karnataka: Delhi scored 194, with a century from Unmukt Chand, who's otherwise had a meh series. It was not enough on a flat deck, as the bowlers stood no chance as Kerala chased down the target with two overs to spare. Rohan Prem and Sachin Baby together won the game for Kerala.

Bengal vs Baroda: Bengal, led by Laxmi Shukla, Shami Ahmed and Sayan Mondal, stifled Baroda, winning by four runs. Shukla played a Pathan-esque innings to take Bengal to a competitve total of 149. Baroda were in the hunt until opener Aditya Waghmode was dismissed three short of 50.